Welcome to How to Money. I'm Joel, I'm Matt, and today we're talking Trump V two, ghost jobs and insufficient savings.
Personally, Joel, I would have said Trump two point zero. That's what everyone's calling it.
That's why don't you didn't you out me? I like V two as well.
Okay, but uh no, this says our Friday flight, our weekly roundup of the different headlines we've come across this week, and specifically we're going to talk about how they pertain to your money.
That's someone else's money. This is all about you. Well, I'm not infallible with my naming conventions. I will say, as you just pointed out, Trump two point h would have been better. Well, I just rolled.
Off the tongue. I think I've heard more folks recently talking about it.
Well, we'll talk about there have been a flurry, there's been a flurry of activity this week on the political front that does impact your money. We'll get to that in just a second. Matt. I logged into the back end of my mortgage account recently, though, and you know what it said. On the right hand side. They were essentially trying to get me to do a cash out refinance, which would be a terrible idea.
Does not surprise me at all because this is a newer mortgage servicer. I'm assuming that purchased your old That's right there, you go, dude, that is what they do. That is the business that they're in. They're all about trying to get you to take on some of these additional loan products that pad their bottom line.
And as anybody out there knows, if you've had your mortgage for any length of time, rates have gone up significantly. A cash out ref would put me in a really, really bad financial position. But what it said, like the marketing efforts said, your cash out resolution paid down debt using equity. And they're trying.
The new year, new you, that's right messaging and branding.
They're trying to get that, hey, why don't you get a lumps on a cash in your life to I don't know, get rid of other crappy debts that might be worse than your mortgage. What a bad idea that would be for basically everyone, right to take a three percent mortgage, turn it into a seven percent mortgage and then yeah, maybe pay down ten thousand dollars worth a credit card debt or something like that. But then you've
got that mortgage debt looming for thirty years. The next thirty years, you're probably extending the life of that loan significantly by doing that cash out refine, I mean cashier refis. They just make sense for basically no one.
Right, just given the fact that there's a chance that we never go back to these I think some folks are thinking, well, it'll come down at some point. We don't know that that is actually going to happen. It is yet to be determined those predictions. And we talked about this at the time, where you know, real estate agents mortgage brokers were telling people, well, Mary, the house date, the rate, Yeah, it doesn't look like a great suggestion.
We set it at the time, and I think we have been proven right, and yeah, will rates could rates potentially go down in the coming years, Maybe maybe, but it's not like totally could. But we don't know that they're going to We don't know, all right, man.
We saw a return to the Oval office for President Trump, and I think a lot of folks might be wondering how this might impact our economy as a whole. How is this going to impact your personal finances? That remains to be seen. There's always a whole lot of talk and bluster when it comes to President Trump. There's a litany of things that we can discuss. For instance, the new twenty five percent tariffs against Canada and Mexico that could be implemented as early as next week.
In terris.
They might serve a geopolitical purpose, but they essentially act as a tax on consumers.
And raising the price of everyday goods right, whether it's auto parts, food, the litany of things.
It's counter to the free market and the ability for companies to produce goods at the absolute lowest price. And again, I understand it from a geopolitical strategy standpoint, But how this impacts Americans, we will see.
How broad those terrorists are. That will also impact how we feel them.
But there certainly is a chance that inflation, which has calmed it could potentially be stoked by this policy change. Were executive orders that could have an impact in the coming months, like an attempt to curb building restrictions in order to increase supply. How that actually will work in reality, It's it's gonna be hard to discern.
It sounds good on paper, but yeah, well yeah, how well for that, Yeah, because that's what we need.
For instance, when it comes to housing, the largest line item on everyone's monthly budget, more supply leads to lower prices.
Building codes are often local. So how is some sort of you know, yeah, and which is yeah. Everyone who is a big fan of Trump, of course, is praising the stroke of the pen, the phone call, and the ability to make everyone's lives better here in the States. But Dave Chappelle, he actually said it really well on Saturday Night Live. He said, whether people voted for.
You or not, everyone is counting on you good luck, which I appreciate. Always count on Dave Chappelle to inject a little bit of common sense into the discourse of the time.
Yeah, I appreciate Dave, and that well said. Right, Well, so we are. We're hoping for the best. We always hope for the best for our presents, whether you've voted for them or not, because we want the best for our country and the three hundred and forty million people inside of it. I'm sure we're gonna have a lot to talk about in the coming months. Matt on the political front and how the political regime change impacts are our finances, because it will, it will have an impact.
And hopefully we will pay attention to the headlines that are actually going to matter, Yeah, and the things that are actually going to happen, because I'm sure so many media companies are like, yeah, strops back in office because it gives them something to report on this and like the craziness that oftentimes comes from the.
Tweets or truths or whatever it is that Trump is saying, and you and I will attempt to our best to keep it a political and focus on the money stuff. Indeed, one thing we have to discuss is the meme coins that the President and the first Lady launched a head of the inauguration. It was kind of a crazy stunt, right, and.
Politics aside, It doesn't matter where you laying on the spectrum.
This is ridiculous, and we've kind of trashed meme coins thoroughly, and the cryptocurrency space. We have, i think, given a lot of caution in our assessment of cryptocurrency and what kind of approach normal investors should have towards crypto. And some folks did make money in this kind of mean coin bonanza if they bought early. They bought that Trump coin early, then the cashed out quick. But this is just another reminder that the mean coin space is rife
with grift. The majority of people lose money. And it's interesting too, Matt, because the crypto space, I think they were hoping that a Trump presidency would usher in vibes of legitimacy, and there has been a lot of talk about, you know, bitcoin in particular having a national Bitcoin Strategic Reserve or something like that. Is that going to be a boon to some of the more popular, more long
standing cryptocurrencies. Maybe if it happens. Yeah, But just this little stunt, I guess hasn't really aided in the legitimacy of crypto. It hasn't started off in a good way. And the takeaway for individuals listening is don't participate in the mean coin insanity no matter w Yeah, and I will say, be ready to lose your shirt if you yeah.
And again this is I think this is an a political statement, but this shouldn't be anything new for folks who have like followed what it is that Trump has done, Like this is like typical behavior for him, right, Like more recently, it's like the branded it's the dumb Lee Greenwood bibles that Trump is selling for.
How much was he selling this for?
I don't six.
But then like the sneakers then, but even before he was president, would you look great in those? By the way, even before he was president? Like the like the Trump steaks and the vodka, like this is something that he does. And so on one hand, it's just it's more of the same. I will say, I was shocked to see the pastor that gave one of the benedictions at the end of the inaugural address or whatever, he launched.
A meme coin.
Oh really, yes, that is incredibly disheartening, Like like that makes me angry. This is like a pastor, someone who's supposed to be forsaking worldly riches in a self sacrificial way to serve other people, and man talk about like that made me really upset when I when I heard that. It just feels so counter to what someone who is in ministry or someone who's a pastor that they should be doing.
Does this mean we're canceling the launch of our mean coin that we have planned.
No, no, no, we're not ministry.
But we can do it. We can do it, Okay.
Something else though, that struck me was the mandate for government workers to return to the office. Dude, working from home. So twenty twenty, we're turning to the office rto. That's the name of the game now. And I will say there's evidence that working from home, at least at the federal level hasn't had great results. That is costing the government therefore us as taxpayers billions of dollars.
Yeah, there's a report issued kind of towards the end of last year, I think from one of the senator's offices that headlined, you know, just how much less productive certain government agencies and certain individuals have been and just how costly that's become.
Yeah, yeah, dude, we're talking especially like given all the office space that is sitting empty, like that's real estate, is incredibly expensive. And similar to the companies who have issued returned to off orders, I think the government they may not be crying you or river if you end up quitting over this. It appears that increased efficiency at the office and a trimm or payroll are simultaneous goals.
So we think that the smartest employers out there who are looking to retain top notch talent will offer more of a hybrid or more of a flex approach where they do trust their great employees to do their job wherever they are. But I do think as an employee you might have to make up difficult choice if going back into the office, let's say five days a week, if that's going to be too tough of a pill
to swallow. I think eventually it'll settle out somewhere in the middle, because I think there had to be this sort of hard correct right, Like the pendulum swung so far to one side and now I think it's almost having to swing hard in the other direction in order to I don't know for employees, for employers to communicate too employees that they're taking this a bit more seriously, But I think it'll eventually settle somewhere in the middle.
And so much depends on the industry, right, and it depends on specific employees too, like how long have they been with the company, how well do they know that ask how well are they able to communicate with people who are also working remotely. But I guess on the flip side of this, this could impact the government's ability to hire some of the top talent if some of that top talent says, yeah, I'm not coming to the
office five days a week. I'm not doing that DC hellish DC commute that I'm imagining is pretty rough, depending on where you live and how far your commute is. But I do think that the RTO trend is only going to increase in the coming months, and that's going to impact a lot of how to Money listeners if their employer is kind of keen on pulling that off too, all right, Matt, Something else that everyone might want to consider is rethinking their emergency fund, how much money they
have stored up in their high yield savings account. MarketWatch pointed this out that changing economic realities might mean that you don't have enough money saved up in your bank account. You might not have enough liquidity, and instead of the traditional three to six months that is typically recommended, some folks are opting to increase the amount of money they
have on hand to nine months or even more. And that is I think a potentially smart move, specifically if your industry or your particular job is less stable, right, So yeah, yeah, if you're in a position that feels a little more precarious, like I would want to have more cash on hand, that seems like a smart move. The average duration of unemployment has actually gone up as well, lasting on average five and a half months, So if you lose your job, you're talking almost six months to
get the next one. So yeah, if that's the case, three months certainly doesn't seem like quite enough. I guess I kind of bland somewhere in the middle on this though.
Mat I think that telling people to save up nine plus months worth of expenses that can feel a little demoralizing because it's really hard to do and how much you actually need it really does depend on a variety of factors, like are you a two income household, do you have a bare bones budget that you could implement immediately upon the loss of a job, and how much
would that actually save you? Because if you're willing to do that, hey, what looks like three months worth the normal expenses could be five months worth of bare bones budget expenses. And ultimately, I think having six months worth of any fund it's better than having three. And some folks might understandably need or want to save even more.
And I think if you do experience a job loss, you are going to be thankful that you thought ahead of time, that you were planning, and that you had a little bit extra on hand, that's true.
Yeah, And as we talked with Katie North about this past Wednesday about sabbaticals, you might be able to parlay some of those additional funds into a sabbatical where you're being a little more introspective there.
Time off losing your job means a severance. If you've got plenty of savings on hand and then three, five, six months worth of severance, it's like set.
Yeah, So, okay, the unemployment rate is low, but that doesn't mean that the job market is booming for job seekers out there, or that hunting for a new gig is easy. This is a part of why it takes longer for most average job seekers to find a new gig, and part of the difficulty is navigating a slew of job postings online, many of which are so hiring platform Greenhouse. They just released an analysis of online job listings and
they found that one in five are fake listings. And it's not that the listing itself is an actual scam, but that there was never actually any hiring activity for that listed job. And so you might be wondering why a company would do such a thing, Why would they post a position that they don't actually intend to fill.
It does seem sailing well.
It could be their speculation that could be in an attempt to project growth that's not actually happening. Evidently, some companies are using it as sort of like a fishing line that they keep out permanently in hopes of catching a rare talent.
But still, what would like a rare fish be man, if you got a rare fish just leaving that line out.
Narwhall, I don't know that's a whale though, right, Yeah, but it doesn't make it any easier for hard to reel that in who are looking for work. It's something to be aware of that you think it's going to be easier than you think. In part, I think because there are so like, oh, everywhere I look, there's a job listing. The Internet makes job hunting easy, right, It makes it look so simple and jobs appear to be plentiful, But that is not the case.
Yeah, I think just kind of approving some of those job boards. It's not that you can't find a job online, or that those job listings aren't helpful and can't put you in the right direction, can't get you at least on the right trail in the right scent. But I think it can get your hopes up when you see a position that looks awesome and it looks like it pays well, and then you never hear back upon reaching
out or applying. That's just kind of the reality of you have to kind of like cast your net wide on the Internet and you're just hoping for someone to respond on the other end. Seeing that, Matt, you mentioned that these listings are not scams, We'll see that just had a piece about job scams, and they're coming in to folks via text message, like actual job scams. Yeah, yeah, gotcha. These are just fake the ones you talked about. But
now we're talking about actual scammy jobs. What's happening in these text messages that the person who's sending you the message pretends to be a recruiter who has a solid work from home job, and hey, maybe your employer just said you got to come back to the office four days a week and you're like, wait, I don't know.
Taking me back to twenty twenty, yeah, I like this work.
From home job that this person's texting me about. But what they're trying to get you to do is to pay them for like a starter kit. Hey you got this awesome job, but we have to mail you a computer and stuff like that, so you need to send us like seven or eight hundred bucks that's going to get this ball rolling. Well, the truth is, no legitimate employer needs money from you upfront, so be careful, especially if you're getting any text message about employment. It is
almost inevitably a scam. Most employers are going to reach out via email, right It's like when the irs a going to text you either, So be careful the medium that's being used. And I think this is also just a good time out to issue a reminder that the majority of jobs come through a good old fashioned networking. It's not that online job hunting is a complete waste
of time. Again, I think it can put you on the right sense, but we're still talking about eighty percent, only eighty percent of those listings being legit, and we're talking about the potential for scams as well, So don't neglect the tried and true method that has worked for decades. It really does. So much of the time come down to who you know, keeping that network active, staying in touch with people who might be consequential in your career moving forward.
That's right, man, And speaking of networking reminds me a friend of the show, Jordan Harbinger, who always talks about digging the well before you need it, before.
You're thirsty, man, before you're thirsty. But we've got more to get to.
We're gonna talk about the direction that rents have been trending over the past year.
We'll get to that and more right after this. We are back. Now it's time, as always, to get to the ludicrous headline of the week. This one comes from the Washington Post and WAPO. Yeah. Listener Kathy posted this in not a fancy neighborhood, it's a media organization that sound like a fast neighborhood. Listener Kathy posted this in the how to Money Facebook group, and if you're not a member of the how to Money Facebook group, go check it out because twelve thousand plus members helping each
other out with their personal finances. But the title of this article was toys are a scam gets right to the point. And maybe we're saying this too late now, like that kind of headlight. Maybe we're covering this after the fact, because Christmas was, after all, about a month ago. Well, I will say.
We talked we had a similar story to this prior to like leading up to Christmas. We're giving folks awarding, like give them a little heads up.
This is a news to us well, and you and I we talked about like some of the changes we were making to what we were buying our kids this Christmas because of the toy overload. Right, but the gist of this article is that kids ask for toys, we buy them, and then those toys don't get played with very much. Classic and the author they actually make a distinction which I appreciated, between like bikes and games and art supplies versus basically all the other toys out there.
And I think even my kids got obsessed for a minute with those surprise toys. It was like a little I mean, it's just plastic crap and then they're they're inside of like a ball or whatever, and you open it up and you have no idea what's going to be inside, but it's one of like four different things. It's like a puppy dog, stuffed animal or something like that. Right,
when do you buy these toys? Uh? Target, I guess, Okay, my parents got some of these for of them they kind of fed into the It's more about the thrill of the hunt, right, yeah, exactly, as opposed to like that thing gets tossed aside, it's played with again. So I've been there as a parent, and as much as my kids don't want to hear it, I think there is a lot of truth to the claim that toys are a scam. I think the authors onto something here. My kids have too many toys, and some they play
with religiously, but others get used rarely, if ever. And I bet I think actually now is the time to talk about this because my guess is that every parent out there can see this clearly. Right now, Matt, We've got a delivery of a big bookshelf the other day. Oh and do you know how many hours my kids played with the cardboard dude that that the bookshelf came in.
It's classic. It's it's amazing. Yeah, Like it's almost like a meme from the nineties or something like that, but like it's so true the fact that even the toys that they receive often it's like, oh, what can we do with this box?
Or oh the bubble rap, Like the amount of time my kids play popping the little bubble wrap, which honestly is rare and rare now because normally now it's just like the big air pockets yeah, which sounds like a shotgun going off inside the house, versus like the little yeah, the small ones. But I think a solution could be it's obviously hard to get your kids to want less stuff, but I do think that the ads that they see
certainly is going to influence what they want. Like, we are all in a better place now, I think than we were when cable was dominant, Like do you remember the constant stream of toy ads when we were kids?
My parents remember it.
How would I have ever known about Hungry Hungry hippos if I hadn't seen those kids playing with it on the TV.
There are fortunately fewer.
Commercials on streaming, and oftentimes it's not for kids toys. It's like for perfume. And we talked about this, how I like change my tune on going with the lower cost streaming plan. Letting like the ability to expose them to advertising something to inoculate them, and for that to be a launching off point for us to have these conversations.
And I love too that it's not toys because that would honestly be a little bit trickier, as opposed to ads that they think are terrible and that they think are so dumb, Like when the perfume and the colonna ads come on, they like roll their eyes, they make barfing noises.
They are the worst. They're the worst.
It's like Katie Perry on Mars or something. They're confused because they're like, well, how does that? How's that supposed to sell a perfume? And it's like, well, you can't show a smell, and so they what they're trying to do.
Is show you that this is creative feeling. Yeah, you could be this cool or this is the kind of life that you could.
You would have this many friends and you'd be dancing at night and driving in this car, running along this beach with the moon. You know, all the things that they show. And it's a great way for us to have these kind of conversations. But I totally agree it's the things that spur creativity in additional things, as opposed to the toys being an end in and of themselves.
Like it makes me think of our my youngest, my son, you know what his favorite thing to do is, like right now, it's freezing outside, and so we've been reading a lot of books. But aside from that, like when we go outside, what he loves to do is find scraps of wood that the builders, that the framers have left all around the house, and he takes those pieces of wood. He's got a little wittedly knife and he carves them into swords. So he's got the secret stash of wooden swords and neighbors daggers.
Knives and you know what he wants.
He doesn't want toy see whatts me to like join him in this creative world that he's created, Like that is so much fun.
He's not playing with half the stuff.
Yeah, that we would have gotten for him at Christmas, but we actually didn't because we scaled back because we did have this conversation.
Yeah, at a.
Time when we're like, hey, we're gonna do the switch, the Nintendo switch.
Yes, well, and that's why we talked about this beforehand. But it's it's actually worked out really well. Like the you and I both got a Nintendo switch for the kids, and now they've announced that Nintendo switch too, and I'm totally fine with the fact that we'll have the one for many years and not be upgrading.
Well, I think we also knew that it was coming, which is why they were on sale. It's a bundle with Mario kard.
Eight, you know well, and that has been kind of a fun way to do things together as a family to play. It's almost like a board game, a digital version of a board game totally, and so it's better
than watching TV, I think. But we also did that in an attempt to not just add a bunch of random crap to our to our households, and so the one, the bigger present made a big, big difference in you in second splash, Yeah, you guys got aerial silks for your daughter Evy recently, and you guys have been they've been playing on that stuff that.
Yeah, dude, Well here's what's awesome as well. Talk about the teaching kids the value of a dollar. We didn't buy that for them. The kids all chipped in together, oh really, and we said, hey, you know, by the time Christmas rolls around, this is something that we consider buying for y'all. But they they wanted it now, and so they all they got together and conspired. They didn't conspire, but they're like, hey, okay, I'm willing to put this
much towards it. And so I don't think Westy, I don't think he contributed any money.
But the girls, they all pitched in. I mean he doesn't get to use him. Uh, he actually doesn't use him. He's not as interested.
He's like, I don't understand why these pieces of cloth hanging from the bailing, why that's.
So much fun.
But yeah, when your girls came over, man, they played on it for hours, literally for hours.
It's so much fun.
And again, it leads to other activity and it just leads to a healthier kind of lifestyle as well, you know, just like y'all with rock climbing, Like y'all have gotten into that more like it's something that leads to something else, additional skills, the building of strength and character, you know, like all these awesome sort of side effects as opposed to just like vegging out and playing.
With a toy. Yeah. And I think maybe as a society, we've kind of made it seem like, oh, you show your kids that you love them if you buy them plastic stuff. I think it's important for us to push
back on that. And it's I think it's really important to have a well conceived family approach to toy accumulation right, and to communicate that in a kind and understandable way to your kids so that when the topic comes up, they understand because they might see that catalog in the mail, point to it, circle stuff in it, and be like, I want this giant piece of plastic. And it's not that you will never buy them a toy ever, but I think kind of having an ethos about how much
you do allow into your house. One it could save you money, but two it can like prevent you from pulling your hair out because that stuff gets literally all over the floor too.
Totally okay, Kiosks, Joel, They are becoming the norm for ordering food, at least at some fast food chains. I'm thinking of McDonald's in particular, Shake Shack. They're actually leaning into Kiosk as well. But interestingly enough, it turns out it's not about reducing employee headcount in order.
To save on labor costs.
All.
That's the knee jerk reaction people have. It's like, Oh, they're just trying to cut cutstaff.
We're gonna yeah, it's all about the mechanization and robots everywhere. No, these restaurants they seem to be keeping all their employees, they're just redirecting them to other tasks. The reason that the kiosk and the screens are all there is because it's about selling you more food. CNN they highlighted the upselling that's occurring at these kiosks, and you got you know, maybe a minimum wage worker, that person there brand new on the job. They might forget to ask you to
supersize your meal. But guess what, especially if it's a long line. That's true a computer, it never forgets. Which it kind of surprises me because you think I would think a smiling face and get interaction with a guest there at the store that might lead to me maybe supersizing it. But I guess again, maybe the problem is is you got folks you don't care whether or not
you supersize it. Right, they're just there earning a paycheck, and there's a lot of money to be made when it comes to some of that upselling that takes place.
We're not living in those Morgan's Purlock Supersize met days anymore. Matt, that still was like the game changing documentary of our time, I feel like, but he would go to a lot of restaurants and they didn't ask him to supersize.
Really, the whole documentary was erroneous because of the fact that it came out after the fact that he was an.
Alcoholic when he went into the doctor and he's just like, oh my gosh, the toll this has taken on your liver and turns out he was like, could have been the fifteen Gen and Tonics that's doing that. Yeah, that's right. Well, I don't really like those kioski there. I feel like they are always takes me a minute to navigate to what I'm trying to get. I would rather i'm a ult school matter rather order with the actual human being. It's just becoming less regular at some of these restaurants.
But hey, I'm not really going to McDonald's anyway. So, but just a word to the wise else out there, don't let the computer make you spend more money. While we're talking about food and spending money, Americans are tipping less than they have in recent years. Prices have yes risen significantly, particularly at restaurants, and folks are being less generous with their servers because of it, Like as the price tag goes up on their meal at whatever, restaurant
they're eating at. They're saying, hmm, I just don't feel like I can tip as much because of that. And it's true, yes, eating out is quite expensive. When you look at the inflation charts, it's become far more expensive
than eating out at home. Like the rate of inflation on food at the grocery store versus food at restaurants has grown, right, so that the prices are climbing faster essentially at when you eat out, and that can be frustrating, Right, Matt, I think I would personally opt for the European model if given a choice, I think you would. I think you prefer the tipping model.
That's a right, Yeah, don't really haven't opinion right now? Okay, well it's it's also gotten you want to take the Steve Bizemi. Yes, well, it's also it's and more confusing as some restaurants have implemented mandatory fees than people are like, well, where are those fees going? Is this the tip or is this just going to the owners of the restaurant. So I think as a consumer it's become more difficult to know how much to tip because of some of
those ancillary fees as well. I think it's important to ask right if you see a fee that you don't understand, and also to not take your frustration out on your server by being a bad tipper. And I think the ultimate solution for a lot of people is going to be to eat out less so that you can still tip reasonably when you do go out. Eating out less is obviously going to save you a lot of money eating more meals at home, but tipping less, yeah, it might be a way to cut down your eating out budget,
but it's not a good one, that's right. Let's talk about housing, Joel. Folks say that one of the best things about owning your house as opposed to renting is that your payment it stays the same while rents continually increase. But that's only kind of true, and it's actually really it's not as true as of late. While folks who bought between let's say that rate recessions so it lu's two thousand and nine up to about twenty twenty three, you know, maybe they find themselves in a decent spot.
The economics of home ownership are changing, even if you bought at a good price with a reasonable rate, and that's because insurance and taxes have been rising really quickly. Today a third of the mortgage payment goes towards those two line items, which is a record amount. And for almost ten percent of homeowners, they make up more than half of your mortgage.
Pains and crazy, that's insane.
It means your annual escrow notice is more frightening than ever and some homeowners are having a tough time dealing with significant payment increases. And so we bring this up to highlight that there's no silver bullet here as opposed to maybe loosening some building regulations to increase the supply, but challenge property tax increases if they are out of line. If that's something that you've seen we've mentioned own well before. More of an automated service. They take a cut of
the amount that they're able to reduce your property tax increase. Yeah, but only they succeeds. So if they fail, you don't pay them. They don't pay money upfront. Shop around for your homeowners insurance and I think this used to be something that maybe was a little bit more of like a cheap guy or a frugal guy thing to do.
But like self insure more, raise your your deductible so that you're not as reliant on your insurance when something happens to your house, because you're gonna save money immediately now because you're gonna see your premiums decrease when you increase your deductible. But over time, because you are less reliant on your insurance, it means you're less likely to use it, which means you're not gonna get booted, not booted off your insurance, but they're not gonna ejacuorrates up
to sky high levels. Yeah.
Yeah, And I think part of the reason that we've seen increases to the extent that we have is just inflation in general, right, rising home prices, rising costs of building like that means that if something does happen in your home, the insurance going to be out more money, so hey, they've got to cover that in premium increases.
But it's also natural disasters in parts of the country, and particularly thinking about places like Florida and California, But that impacts people not just in those states, but really across the country. As insurers sometimes disperse the pain a little more widely, it's become really tough out there for homeowners from an insurance expense in the last couple of years in particular, and not to go back to the well on this too much, Matt, but home ownership is
often seen as the number one way to build wealth. Like, there are a lot of people out there who truly believe that owning a home is their best way to achieve the American dream and to be able to retire successfully. And when you look at the numbers, it does kind of sort of look like that, right, that owning the home is what contributes to more greater levels of financial independence. Homeowners do have a much greater net worth than renters.
But it's really just not that simple, right when it comes down to it, home ownership is not the key to building wealth. Investing in general is, which, in part having a mortgage payment forces you to do. It's like, you know, it's that forced method of saving yah. Yeah, yeah, But if you had taken the additional money and invested instead, you might have come out ahead over the years. Better
investments out there, for sure. Yeah. But case in point here, I think this actually kind of highlights the fact that renting might make more sense than buying for a lot of people. Rents are actually down over the past twelve months. Most people think again. Rents go up year after year, and especially during COVID and stuff like that, it felt like rents were going up at an insane pace because they were. Well, that has not just slowed down, but
rent growth is actually declining. So you might have to be able to get a better deal on the apartment or the home that you're renting next month or next year. And you know, buying can be a solid personal decision and a reasonable financial one if that's what you're into. It has provided outsize gains at certain points in time, but you got to contend with the trade offs of home ownership as well. Home maintenance, for instance, Matt averages
something like five hundred dollars a month. According to Zillo, you got to contend with all the costs of home ownership before taking the plunge. Insurance, right, maintenance, taxes, all that stuff all skyrocket and quickly impacting homeowners Printing might not seem quite as bad when you take all those costs into account, and you'll have more financial flexibility and
room to invest if you wait a little longer. I don't want to like dissuade everyone and say homeownership bad, don't do it, but it's just not as simple as a lot of people have made it out to be either. That's true.
Yeah, and you can especially get a deal if you are looking at an apartment which has seen the largest declines over the past twelve months. We've had a flurry of newsletter sign ups Joel and so we want to give a quick referral shout out to Joanna V as well as h Whitworth for recommending the how To Money newsletter to a bunch of their friends. And you can find the how to Money newsletter over at housemoney dot
com for slash that's right, you guessed it newsletter. But we will see you back here on Monday with a fresh ask how to Money episode, and we hope that everyone has a fantastic weekend.
Buddy.
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